Just about everyone with a working computer and an Internet connection has some means of sending and receiving email. However, a small group of individuals tend to use it for unintended purposes; sending viruses. Although this isn't an article on spam, it plays a big part in the distribution of email viruses. Here's how to identify a computer virus in your inbox.

Steps

1

Look closely at the subject lines. For those who don't know, a subject line is a summary of an email. If you happen to be getting subject lines such as: "Make.Money.Fast," most likely the email contains a virus.

2

Watch attached files. Most of the time a file that is a virus has an .exe or .vbs file extension. (A file extension is a type of file.) What most hackers would do is name a file followed by a file extension, followed by another file extension. (blank.jpg.vbs for example.) The first extension (.jpg) is just part of the name if followed by another (.vbs).

3

Check the sender. If the sender is someone you don't know or a company you're not familiar with, the email probably contains a virus.

4

Read the message. Although it might be sent from someone you know, the message may leave you clueless about why it was sent. (For example, the "here you have" email virus simply says "This is The Document I told you about,you can find it Here," followed by the virus' download link. Upon reading, it will send itself to everyone in the Microsoft Office address book with the victim as the sender.) That is an obvious indication that the email contains a virus.

5

Know that email viruses may pretend to be sent from an existing company. It is important to read each email thoroughly; an email may seem to be sent from a legitimate company when it was really sent from a hacker. (This is called forging email.) A forged email may contain multiple spelling/punctuation errors, another indicator that the email contains a virus.

6

Do not follow links unless assured or necessary. Sometimes the virus is located on a website, rather than attached to an email. The hacker would require the victim to follow the link to a website in order for the virus to be downloaded. If not contacted/assured prior to receiving the email that the link is safe, do not follow it.